Archive for the ‘Worldview’ Category

It is the weekend leading up to Independence Day which means it is that time of year again. It is time for the church worship service to go patriotic. We can expect to see special patriotic music, flag ceremonies, or times set aside to honor those who serve in our military. It is, after all, the birthday of our great nation and we have much to celebrate, not the least of which are the freedoms we enjoy and the men and women who have sacrificially given their lives so that we can enjoy this freedom.

This morning we went to the house of worship where the my church gathers for corporate worship on this weekend before Independence Day. Our worship started off with a patriotic song which was spectacularly performed by the choir and orchestra. This song received a standing ovation and everyone remained standing as we joined in for the Pledge of Allegiance. After the pledge, the entire assembly sang our national anthem. There was a thunderous applause for the patriotism and then we sat down for the continuation of the worship service.

I love our country. I appreciate the men and women of our armed forces and I think there is much to be celebrated about our country. I am thankful that my citizenship is in this country. There is much about our culture in this present day that is concerning but we have great freedoms in this country which is to be celebrated. Many people the world over are envious of people who have the privilege of being citizens of our country. Having said that, I take the position that the pledge and the celebration of our country should happen in the context of civic celebration events but not in the context of Christian worship. I love to watch Pops Goes the Fourth but I don’t love to see those songs sung in church.

I have taken this position because of what I understand to be corporate worship in the context of the local church. The church is coming together for the sake of the community of saints but primarily to worship and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. We are there to exalt the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are there to praise the creator of the universe. (Of course, the centerpiece of worship is the exposition of the Word of God, but that is a subject for another post.) With this understanding of Christian worship, these are the reasons that I think that patriotic songs and the Pledge of Allegiance do not belong in our church worship services.

The Pledge of Allegiance. This is the easiest issue to point out. While we do pledge our allegiance to our nation on a temporal level, we pledge our allegiance to God on an eternal level. We follow our civic authorities until they conflict with God’s commands. We are at church to worship the God of the universe. What are we doing pledging our allegiance to a lesser authority when we are there to praise God Himself.

Why do we praise God? God has blessed his people in many ways. The blessings of God are not measured in material ways but in spiritual ways. We are blessed to live in America. There is no doubt about that but is that why we worship God or do we worship because of the gift of His Son, His Spirit, and the Gospel? The Gospel is far greater than the privilege of living in the USA. This is why people can gather in places like North Korea and still worship and know that they are blessed by God.

What about internationals? God is moving around the world and is bringing people around the world to our doorsteps. Hopefully your church is trying to reach internationals. What do you think that your international guests think about your patriotic celebration in church? Would they think it is appropriate to be pledging allegiance to the USA in a service of worship to the creator of the universe. They would probably shudder at doing that in a worship service in their home country. They may wonder why worship to God includes allegiance being pledged to a country.

God is calling people from all nations. The United States of America is not God’s chosen nation. God is calling people from all tribes, tongues, and nations into His church. Our God is a God who will be worshipped by all nations. That is what the story of history is about according to Genesis 12.

It causes people to confuse spiritual blessing with material blessing. We are blessed to have freedom in this country that other around the world don’t have. Celebrating that freedom makes people think that the greatest freedom which God has given us is the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of America. What happens when those freedoms disappear? People will blame God because he is the author of those freedoms. But the real blessings we enjoy are enjoyed by Christians around the world and many of them are experiencing intense persecution. We can face intense persecution and still be immensely blessed by God. We celebrate the gift of Christ and the gospel which is not limited to people in free nations. Celebrating the freedoms in America in church worship is the first step towards the slippery slope of the prosperity gospel.

There is much more to be said but I will cut this off here. What are your thoughts on this issue? Does your church do a patriotic service? Do you feel comfortable with it?

I really enjoy listening to J. Warner Wallace and his podcast called Cold Case Christianity. You can find him at Please Convince Me or Cold Case Christianity. I enjoy apologetics and listening to thinkers reason about faith and cultural issues. I was recently listening to J Warner Wallace discuss the issue of abortion with an atheist. Wallace mentioned to the atheist that his objections to abortion were not based on the Bible but based on pure reason.

I understand that you can’t reason with an atheist using the Bible. You must use reason. However, as a Christian I believe that the foundation for our convictions must be the Bible and not reason. Reason and logic are a reflection of God’s character and the order that He has created. On the other hand the Scriptures are direct revelation from God. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) says:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

God’s Word is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness that we may be complete and equipped for good works. How can we use anything else as the foundation for our convictions? Only God’s Word is without error. I agree that when we are in “arguments” with non-Christians we should use reason but that is not the foundation for our convictions. It is what we use to convince others of the reasonableness of our positions. God’s Word is His revelation to us and should be the foundation on which we stand. Reason is a reflection of his character and we must use reason as we look to His Word and apply it. We should use reason in the public square but may we never say that Scripture is not the foundation for our beliefs and convictions.

It appears as though Putin is going to take Crimea from Ukraine just as he wanted. It is amazing that one country can just go in and take over part of another country. What is even more amazing that there is nobody who can stand up to Putin. Behold the new superpower, Russia. They can take whatever country they want because nobody is going to do anything to stop them. The USA was the country of the Greatest Generation and now we are the country of the weakest generation dwindling into irrelevance.

It is sad, not only because of what Putin is doing to Crimea, but because the citizens of the USA are so provincial that they could care less about what is going on across the world. They are not students of history and have no idea of the gravity of the events we are witnessing before their eyes. We have become a nation of isolationists that will sit by and watch Russia rewrite the map.

I hope the Europeans will, at some point, have enough sense to come to each other’s aid. If not, their children will all be speaking Russian one day.